Monday - 27 August 2018

Our plan is to leave Cadiz tomorrow, once the winds have passed through, so today our preparations went up a gear.  It has been great having a couple of lazy days, resting and recuperating. We have also had time to plan the next week or so of our trip, and pass these plans on to our next guest, who is arriving at the weekend. We have socialised with folks from a couple of other boats, some Swedes who we have bumped into a few times and an American couple who are now heading back to their home in Oregon.  They have quite a long way to go.  We have also experienced the various delights of “Port Theatre”, including watching the various levels of skill exhibited by other boat owners in their parking activities, both good and not so good, and I ended up getting sprayed by the skipper of the boat next door who was obliviously hosing down his decks.

The weather today is completely different from what we have experienced previously here.  As we walked to the shops the visibility was poor and the temperature was much cooler. There was a hint of rain in the air but it did not really materialise.  We found a large supermarket and were are able to stock up on food for the next few days. We also topped up the water tanks as the guide books say that we will be charged for water at some of the next places we will stop.  We got the bikes out and cycled a good porting of the exterior of the “island” that Cadiz sits on.  We haven’t used them much so far this year.

The winds came in as expected and we put out extra mooring lines to stabilise the boat’s position.  We were less than happy when we had to move a few days ago, and where we are now is much more exposed.  The boat is longer than the pontoon, and the wind is coming in from just one side of the bow which means that Equinox is then skewing in her berth.  The wind got up a bit during the early afternoon and then died down for the late afternoon and early evening.  By bed time it was in full flow, with the gusts up to about 40 knots. Rather than turning in, I monitored what was happening for an hour so, before seeing it start to drop away again as forecast.  At about 11:00 I had a very interesting sign language conversation with a Spanish boat owner who was complaining about the noise of halliards slapping against the mast of a boat that was now unoccupied.  He didn’t think he would be able to sleep through the noise, but thankfully I managed to.

Distance covered today	0	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	1372	nautical miles
Distance covered 2018	2092	nautical miles
Steve (and Tricia)